


When the front lines must fall back

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, Multiple Personalities, Post-Episode: s02e05 Finger Patrol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25219840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: First and foremost, Hammerhead was a protector. She protected Kay. She protected the Underground. She protected them, us, we. If she couldn’t protect, couldn’t do her job, then what the fuck was she good for?Baby Doll was dead, and her loss was felt through the tunnels and the remains of the railway tracks, and every station wailed their grief.
Relationships: Crazy Jane & The Underground (Doom Patrol), Hammerhead & Baby Doll (Doom Patrol)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	When the front lines must fall back

**Author's Note:**

> I'm unable to watch full Doom Patrol episodes because I can't access it in Australia, but I watched the scene on YouTube, and it's?? NUTS?? Like, I never thought we would see anything like that, and I'm honestly kind of shocked?? 
> 
> I also want to make myself clear, because I saw some discourse on Tumblr- as far as I know, Baby Doll tried to lock Dorothy in the furnace and light her on fire. Dorothy summoned one of her friends (I don't know how they work) so protect her, and Flaming Katy arrived and killed him. Dorothy made a wish and the Candlemaker SOMEHOW went to the Underground and started killing people and destroying shit. I don't think Dorothy meant to kill Baby Doll. I think she said something like 'I want her to go away' or 'I want her to pay for killing Manny' or 'I never want to see her again' and the Candlemaker interpreted that as killing Baby Doll. What happened was bad, but Baby Doll did start it. I think what Dorothy did was an accident. Do you know what I mean?
> 
> Anyway, I've wanted to write a fic from the perspective of someone in the Underground for a while, and I thought that this was the perfect way to do it! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Hammerhead knew her place in the Underground.

Unlike Jane, who was constantly questioning her worth and her position, Hammerhead knew what she was, _who_ she was. She stood on the front lines like a sentry, the first offence and the first defence at the same time. If anything got past Jane, and things often did, Hammerhead was always there to pick up the pieces and make that fractured outer-wall three times as strong.

She couldn’t deny that Jane had it tough. During the short amounts of time that they had spent at the Caulder mansion, with the tin-man and the radioactive mummy and the posh puddle of goo and now the kid with the cybernetic implants and the little girl with the face of a monkey, she had wanted to pull Jane's hair out of her head. It was a handful, having to deal with all of them on a daily basis, and the short moments she had to endure were like her own personal hell. She understood why Jane hung around them like a bad smell, though. Whereas the others could peak out and take a quick look around before returning to the safety of the Underground, surrounded by friends. Jane had none of that. All she had was the bunch of fuck-ups that drove her insane. She didn’t hang around the Underground long enough to make any real connections with any of the others. Not that many of them liked her, anyway.

But, considering Hammerhead had spent the most amount of time at the forefront of that god-forsaken world compared to the others in the Underground, she understood what Jane went through more than most. Not like she had to accept how weak and stupid she was, though.

First and foremost, Hammerhead was a protector. She protected Kay. She protected the Underground. She protected them, us, we. If she couldn’t protect, couldn’t do her job, then what the fuck was she good for?

Baby Doll was mischievous and excitable and innocent. Sometimes, the only one who could see the light down in the darkness of the Underground, where the only light was from the dirt-streaked windows and the rooms in the station filled with sunlight. She poked her nose where it didn’t belong, pressed buttons that she shouldn’t, but other than the occasional mishap, she was harmless. 

She didn’t spend much time up top. More than others, maybe, but she preferred the safety of the Underground to the uncertainty of the outside. The only person who felt differently was Jane. She was the only one who enjoyed the daily grind. The above world was too hectic, too dangerous for Baby Doll, who only wanted to play and have fun and never grow up. And who was Hammerhead to tell her any differently? There was no pulling weight when Baby Doll couldn’t help. It was like pushing Penny to the front lines and telling her to fight. The fighters faced the fire, the others stayed safe.

She got on people’s nerves, sometimes. She kept secrets and she played pranks, but everyone had gotten used to Baby Doll’s antics over the years, and now they were commonplace. 

When Hammerhead had let her face the surface, she had thought that it would be good for everyone. Give Jane a break, let Baby Doll play with the new girl, someone her own age. Make everyone happy. And for a while, it was good. Baby Doll’s excitement and joy filtered down to the very lowest levels of the Underground and everyone basked in the feeling. It was nice, it was new, and even Jane sat on the floor with her face upturned to the feeling like she was searching out the sun.

Hammerhead knew when to step in for Jane when her anger, her panic, her fear filtered down to her, and she barrelled through the walls and forced her way to the surface to protect them from whatever Jane feared. The same went for the others- Lucy Fugue, Silver Tongue, Doctor Harrison. Unlike the others, Jane was defenceless, and could do nothing but run and hide until someone from down below broke through to help her.

Flaming Katy had felt Baby Doll’s horror and panic when that _beast_ appeared and backed her into a corner. She reacted faster than Hammerhead did, than any of them did, and she soared to the surface and took care of the matter quicker than Hammerhead could blink. When she returned, much too fast and much too quietly, she didn’t speak, but she was angry. Everyone was silent. Then Baby Doll was screaming.

A giant monster made of wax and flame tore through the tunnels with the sound of thundering footsteps and deep menacing laughter and the roar of flame louder than even Katy’s fire. Baby Doll stood, frozen in fear until Jane ran forwards and dragged her away.

Somehow, standing in the sidelines in shock, Hammerhead knew what Jane was going to do, knew that she would get herself killed trying to lure this thing away, or scare it off, or return to the surface in time to get that crazy little girl to make her friend go away, but Jane has always been stupid and desperate and too kind for her own good, and so Hammerhead knew that she was going to get herself killed trying to be the hero that she clearly wasn’t.

But then Hammerhead was thrown like a ragdoll into the wall just for trying to do her damn job, and when she woke up, everything was different, everything was ruined.

Nobody had heard from Driver 8, but her train was mangled and charred, and her railway tracks were pulled from the ground and twisted into knots. Flaming Katy, who had stood beside Hammerhead on the front lines once again, the fight having been brought to them instead of the other way around, was discarded in the corner like a broken toy. And Jane, poor, useless, defenceless Jane who tended to have her head up her ass and nobodies best interests at heart, knelt in a puddle of blood, Baby Doll’s body already taken away by those unharmed and covered with a sheet. 

The moment Hammerhead stood, she regretted it. It wasn’t often that she felt pain, much less pain that radiated through her whole body and made her blink stars from her eyes. But somehow, she made it over to where Jane was sitting, blood soaking into her jeans, her hands slick with it. It was still fresh, and the scent of iron was sickly.

Jane hadn’t moved. Unlike the others, who had cleared out of the room, now coated in wax and blood, hopefully looking for Driver 8 and any of those unaccounted for, Jane sat in the puddle, staring at her reflection in the blood. Even when Hammerhead came over and rested a hand on her shoulder. This was new for them. They didn’t get to have this kind of interaction, and it was… not unpleasant.

“Is this my fault?” Jane asked, voice dull and quiet, and Hammerhead hadn’t expected that. She hadn’t expected her to speak at all much less ask a question like that, coated in Baby Doll’s blood. Hammerhead could almost imagine her rushing forward before that candle monster had faded away and cushioned Baby Doll’s head on her lap, gently pushing away her hair from her face and telling her she would be alright with all the kindness she had in her soul as blood bubbled in her mouth and Baby Doll-

Hammerhead turned her gaze to where Flaming Katy lay in the corner, unmoving and extinguished. She had never seen Katy without her exterior of flame, and seeing her like that, charred and burned and vulnerable, made her feel sick to her stomach. She hoped that nobody had moved her because she was still alive, injured but breathing, and she was just too hot to touch, and they waited for Hammerhead. Not that she was dead. She watched her, the woman they had always thought was untouchable and dangerous and deadly, the woman revered for her place in the hierarchy of the Underground, now still in the corner, not knowing if she was alive or dead. What the hell had they become?

“Maybe,” she said. Jane was probably expecting comfort or kindness, but Hammerhead had never been good at either of those, it wasn’t how she was built, so she gave her honesty instead. Jane lowered her head. Whether from shame or acknowledgment or acceptance or all three, Hammerhead wasn’t sure, but she squeezed her shoulder anyway.

“I didn’t know that we could be killed in the Underground. Not unless we jumped in the Well,” Jane said as she rubbed her hands together, still slick with Baby Doll’s slowly drying blood. “I didn’t know that anyone could come here. I know Cliff did, but that was different. This thing… how-”

“I don’t know,” Hammerhead said. “I didn’t know either. This is as much a shock to me as it is to you.”

“What do we do now?”

The question, while quiet and reserved, was like a slap in the face. Hammerhead hadn’t expected it, and she was caught off guard. She hadn’t even taken the time to consider it. “We mourn. We bury. We rebuild.”

“How?” Jane sounded so defeated that something shifted deep within Hammerhead’s chest. “How do we fix this? If something like this can happen to _Baby Doll_ of all people? And Katy…”

“We’ll find a way,” Hammerhead said. “We always do. That’s our fucking job. If we can't bounce back from this, whatever the fuck _this_ is, then what’s the point of us? We have to find a way to fix this. And I hate to say it, I _really_ hate to say it, but it might be up to you. I know we want to change some things, but you-”

“No,” Jane’s voice was suddenly sharp. “Not yet. I’m not doing anything yet.”

“Then _when_ Jane? When are you going to stand up and fix this?” Hammerhead demanded. “When are you going to wake up and realize that not everything revolves around you?”

Jane was silent as she picked flaking blood off of her fingers and ran her hands down her blood-soaked jeans. It had cooled now, though the stench of death and the recent trauma had not yet faded. “Soon. After. After a funeral. We need- we need to hold a funeral, Hammerhead. For Baby Doll, and whoever…”

She trailed off. She didn’t need to finish that thought. Hammerhead knew it too, and she decided, despite the tensions between the populous of the Underground lately and the disdain they held for Jane, that she could grant her this. She could grant her some time to mourn, and when it was all said and done, Jane would go back, and she would take care of it. And for the first time in a very long time, Hammerhead knew with absolute certainty that she would take care of it.

“Yeah, Jane,” Hammerhead nodded, “We’ll do that. But you-”

“Tell Flit to stay nearby,” Jane’s voice was quiet, broken, reserved, yet determined. Something Hammerhead hadn’t heard in a long time. “I might be calling on her soon. Penny, too. I think we need to start running again.”

All Hammerhead could do was nod. She had no idea what Jane must be thinking right now, but she knew exactly what she was feeling. The same sorrow, the same horror, the same rage was running through her veins, and the look on Jane’s face was the same that all in the Underground shared. “I think I can do that for you.”

In the corner, Flaming Katy was still and silent, eyes dark, her flame extinguished. Jane was sitting in a puddle of blood, and Baby Doll sat under a ratty blanket, cold and dead and unusually silent, her sparkly crown dislodged. Driver 8 was missing, her train torn asunder, her railway tangled like the vines of a dead tree. The others watched on. Driller Bill. Penny Farthing. Lucy Fugue. Pretty Polly. The Secretary. Flit. The ones who had been on the sidelines, forced to watch but unable to help, stood just outside the chamber, watching quietly, sadly.

“It grabbed Katy like a kids toy. Plucked her right out of the air,” Jane whispered. “It threw you around like you weighed nothing. And Baby Doll- Hammerhead, you should have seen it. It went right through her, and the _blood_ -”

Jane broke off, choking on emotion. She covered her mouth with her blood slick hand, and Hammerhead did her the kindness of pretending not to see the tears rolling down her cheeks. “It’s time to start running again,” she said as she moved away from Jane and made her way to Katy. Someone had to check, someone had to make sure that she was still alive, and if the others were too afraid to, then Hammerhead would do the work that nobody dared to touch. The same couldn’t be said for Baby Doll.

Baby Doll was dead, and her loss was felt through the tunnels and the remains of the railway tracks, and every station wailed their grief. 

When Jane returned to the surface, covered in wax and tears and pain, she screamed her anguish, and all of the Underground screamed with her.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to avoid using words like 'dead' and stuff when talking about Flaming Katy because, unlike Baby Doll, we don't know if she's dead yet?? She just might be hurt. Same goes for Driver 8. I hope we get to learn more about them. I need to know what everyone's powers are before something else happens or I will lose my mind. I need to know!!


End file.
